Dozens of Yazidis ‘massacred’ by Islamic State militants

Share via

Yazidis walk towards the Syrian border to escape the violence from Islamic State militants in Sinjar townRodi Said/Reuters

Hollie Clemence

Last updated at 10:06AM, August 16 2014

Islamic State militants have reportedly massacred at least 80 Yazidi men and
captured women and children in a village just 30 miles from Sinjar in Iraq.

It is claimed that the Islamic State (Isis) fighters told men in the village
of Kocho to convert to Islam or face execution. “They arrived in vehicles
and they started their killing this afternoon,” one senior Kurdish official
told Reuters yesterday. “We believe it’s because of their creed: convert or
be killed.”

A resident of a nearby village said an Isis fighter gave him details of the
bloodshed. “He told me that the Islamic